Unwilling hero
by Cookie Seller On The Dark Side
Summary: "You can't spell 'Villain' or 'Criminal' without I. But there is no I in 'Hero'." Kaylee is just your average teen- with superpowers, superparents and an evil granny. She's now going to Sky High, a place for heroes in training- which would be fine, if Kaylee didn't want to follow in dear Granny's footsteps...


It was a regular dinner at home. Me, mum, dad, arguing. Ah, the fun we had.

"_Please_," I pleaded, banging my head of the table. "I'm a _horrribbllle_ person, don't make me go!"

"You have to," dad said as-a-matter-of-factly. "You're enrolled. So: no going back now."

"Please!" I said desperately. "I'm a terrible coward! I'd let the citizen be captured! The world will end if-"

"-You attend Sky High?" Asked mum, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow. "Doubtable."

"I don't care! Just send me... send me... send me to _normal school_! PLEASE!"

Dad placed down his newspaper. Uh oh, here comes the speech. "Dear, you know I'm T-Man and your mum's Opto-"

"Shush!" Hissed my mum.

"- And you've inherited both of our powers, and your grandmother's. You could really help the world!"

"Or destroy it," I muttered darkly.

Maybe I should explain. My dad and mum- and like, half of my relatives- went to this high school called 'Sky High'. The freaky point is that it's five Eiffel Towers high, and it's for super heroes in training. You know, like superman and other guys in tights. Ick. Another thing, my parents were pretty well known, and _everyone_ expects me to be Opto Jr or something. Mum was Opto, and she controlled what people see. She could make people go insane if she wanted, but she hadn't the heart. Dad was T-Man, or 'telekinetic Man', and his name is pretty self-explanatory. My granny was a villain, like I'd half like to be. She had power over people's breathing, and could cause both fainting and imminent death. Before she went totally cuckoo, she used to explain a lot of things about villains to me. They are totally misunderstood.

"Kaylee," mum started.

"It's Vale!" I snapped. "That's Va-lay! Okay?" Vale was my gran's villain name, when I said I liked it, she told me I could keep it. It means 'Goodbye' in Latin.

My parents winced. "Maybe we could change that to Salve-"

"No!"

"Look, K- Vale, please. Just listen-"

"Fine!" I yelled. "I'll go to Loser High-" you may wince at the lameness- "just leave me alone!"

I stormed up the stairs and slammed the door.

Hey, I did warn them how I was a horrible person. Just shows how people should listen to me more often.

I sighed. Vale took of her invisible non-existant mask and Kaylee emerged. I sat in the darkness of my room. It was pretty cold, with the window partly open, and the cool bursts of air shook my evil-green colored curtains gently.

I love my room. It's an emerald color on the walls and on my pillow, and the carpet is a dark green, as is my bed sheets, curtains and blanket. I have a mahogany dresser, wardrobe, shelves above my bed, and a little set of drawers beside my bed. I have a rather vile looking chandelier, with -you guessed it- four forest green lightbulbs. My emerald walls are covered in scattered posters, most of which feature villains and heroes battling it out in the local supermarket.

I collapse onto my soft bed. The impact made a book fall from the shelf above me. Of course, that particular book had to hit me to make it realistic for my life. Its title was: _Octo and T-Man, a love story_. (Why do I even own a book about my parent's love-life? That's just stalkerish.)

Is it so wrong to want to help your gran with her job?

No!

I could totally predict what would happen tomorrow when I got to Sky High - what a _horrid_ name for a secondary school. I bet they'll take one look at me and say, 'Oh, for the love of man-tights, she is no hero!".

I wonder if they actually say that- the man-tights part, I have no doubts that they'll proclaim to the world that I'm no superhero.

With that and a bunch of other happy thoughts, I drifted into sleep.

* * *

I had a weird dream that night. There was a bunch of people eating bananas, but I was eating an apple. They all started screaming about how I was a hardened criminal, that I deserved a life-time prison sentence. I woke up shrieking about fruit and jail, two things that really shouldn't go together. The watch I had left strewn across the drawers read 5 seconds past 6am. I groggily noticed my yellow and white spongebob-squarepants PJs were still on the floor, three-quarters under my bed, and that I was still wearing jeans, a black shirt, and white snow boots.

I yawned loudly, sounding like a middle-aged man. I heard all those beautiful morning noises; the birds singing obnoxiously; my black cat, Kink, scratching the carpet downstairs; an 'oomph' as mum shoved dad out of bed in her sleep.

I had until seven to get up, so I lazed in my bed for thirty-five minutes, listening through ear-phones to Avril Lavigne to 'Everybody hurts', ect. I had 25 minutes to do absolutely nothing, and that didn't seem like _enough._ I threw my pillows and blankets off of the bed, and formed a protection-mat beside it. I did tumbles back and forth on my bed, falling off the bed only several times. Five minutes two, said my watch pessimistically.

I stripped into a white shirt with dark writing reading 'I'm right, you're wrong, the end', black trousers, and my snow boots. My style, people.

I casually leaped down the stairs, five steps at a time, and strolled into the kitchen. Mum and Dad seemed to be having a rather serious chat.

"_She's turning out like her grandmother!"_

_"Sky High will help her, don't worry."_

_"I hope so_- oh, morning, Kay- Vale."

"Yeah," I grunted back in a lady-like fashion, scooping up a spoonful of cereal greedily.

The rest of breakfast went awkwardly for my parents, as I made no effort to form conversation. I didn't even meet their eyes when they wished me well. Heck, if they wished me well, they wouldn't be sending me to 'How-teens-get-their-egos-widened High'.

"Vale," I said as a goodbye. I think mum might have cried. But not out of pride of her little prodigy...

I looked to the ground as I walked to the assigned bus-stop. I felt guilty. Maybe I didn't need an ego burst, since it seemed like my own was getting overweight.

I stood uncomfortably at the stop. There was no sign or anything, and people kept waiting for me to cross the road. Instead I stood their like an idiot. Eventually, the bus arrived.

It was just like any of those school buses you'd see in the movies. Yellow and loud.

The driver greeted me with a lopsided grin and exclamation of awknowlegement. _OMG! You're mom is awesome! _The looks on the other kid's faces told me that he did this a lot. Either way, I wasn't impressed.

"Whatver," I said moodily. Those morning tumbles must've sent all the kindness I had in me falling out of my ear or something.

I took a seat beside a shy-looking girl with pink-glasses and plaited brown hair. She stuttered something about her name being Cecilia.

"Mind if I call you Sissy?" I questioned.

Her eyes widened, like she hadn't expected me to care whatsoever. "Sure," she mumbled.

"I'm Vale." I said.

"I thought your name was Kaylee..." She said quietly. "Va-lay is a cool name."

I smiled proudly. "Yeah, it sure is."

I conversed with Sissy for the rest of the ride. The more we talked, the more confident she became. It turned out she didn't want to go to Sky High either.

"Yeah, I'd rather go to normal school." I agreed heartily.

"Definitely. My mum was a superhero who could control the water, but my dad was just someone she saved. Mum wants me to be a mini her, and dad is all nerdy about the whole hero thing," she explained.

I cringed. "My parents are heroes, and they both expect me to be the next Wonder Woman."

"I wish _we_ had a say in things. I mean, if we're the new generation, don't they want us to have actual enjoyment in the job. We could end up robbing spar because the Superhero job doesn't pay up."

"Yeah." I said, nodding. "Oh, look. Maybe we aren't the only ones who don't wanna be here!"

She turned to see what I was looking at. A boy and girl were at the next stop. The girl was wearing hippie-clothes, and the boy was wearing baggy ones. Hippie looked excited, Baggy looked worried.

"I think you're right." Said Sissy, smiling.

The driver- Ron or something- screeched like a teenaged girl. He introduced himself and blabbered on about how cool the guy's parents were. He then attempted to kick two kids out of their seats, but the boy - now named Will Stronghold by Ron- and the girl -Lay or something- both took their own seats. Will took his beside some neon yellow boy.

Within a few minutes, we were airborn. I wasn't scared- how else would we reach the school if it was sky high. (Not the school, the height.) People were shouting and planning out their wills for the ten minute travel to Sky High.

Ron announced a 'smooth landing' as we skidded across the grounds. I give Sky High this: it's huge. Enormous, even.

"Wowza," said Sissy. "This is freaky big."

"Mm," I mumbled. There were a bunch of kids working on ice sculptures to the left handside of us. Tthe ice came from their fingertips to form a graceful snowflake, and it didn't even melt with the sun beating down on us. "That's cool," I commented.

"Oh yeah," said Sissy, she grinned. "Look, they've done a miniature one of the school!" And so they had, and it was detailed and pretty amazing.

Suddenly someone shoved into me, and I nearly fell over, but Sissy caught my shoulder before collapsed.

"Good lord," she exclaimed, eyes wide. "What on Earth is that?"

I sure had no clue. Something was flashing around us, leaving us in a cirle of flying dust. I caught the figure of someone, a silhouette that disappeared within seconds.

"Just a hero," I guessed. "Power over air, maybe?"

My first guess was right. A tubby boy with a small amount of brown hair emerged from the smoke. He was grinning like a maniac. Another boy with dark brown/ light black hair strolled up beside him. they said they were 'The welcoming commitee'.

"As if," I snorted. They totally ignored my disbelief, as most people do.

"You're right," Sissy said. "They're total liars." But we were at the back of the pack, so no one heard or listened to us.

The two asked the group for money, but some girl called Gwen Grayson appeared and disrupted the thieves' plot.

Go Gwen!

Gwen lead us to the principal- I ignored the speech- then to the gymnasium.

"All right, listen up," said the guy on a pedestal in the middle of the place. "My name is Coach Boomer, you may know me as Sonic Boom- you may not. Here's how Power Placement works: you will step up here and show me your power. Yes you will do so in front of the entire class. I will determine where you will be assessed: hero, or side-kick." He glared at us. "Now, every year there are a few students, or as I like to call them '_Whiner_ Babies' who see fit to question ans to complain about their placement. Now, let's get one thing straight: my word is law, my judgement is final," he put out a warning hand, "so there will be no Whiner Babies. Are we clear?"

Everyone grumbled an answer.

"I said: _Are. We. Clear?_" He boomed, hurting my delicate ears. Now I knew where he got his nickname.

"YES COACH BOOMER!" Everyone said loudly.

The coach blew his piercing whistle. "Go time!"

The first guy was a rock, literally, and got hero. Next guy (maybe, he didn't prove it) glowed- sidekick. Acid spit, bouncy ball, hamster-thing, lots of arms- not necessarily in that order- and so on went onto the pedestal.

The coach ended the first half of the session by choosing the Stronghold guy for the next round of pain.

I still hadn't had my chance, and neither had Sissy.

Part of me wanted to be a sidekick- I could be like one of those evil butlers who betrays the hero in the end and makes it all dramatic. The other part was like: _what the hey! I'm pretty amazing, why not share my awesome-ness with the world?_ The poor world would be totally deprived of insanity without me. I had a feeling that I should be thankful. Although the guy who glowed wasn't the strongest, he still had a pretty useful power- _50% off! Human torch! Carries baggage and helps you in the dark!_ Me? Well, goody. All I ever wanted was to: A. Kill someone. B. Make 'em faint. C. Make someone go crazy. I don't mind option D, though. Moving things with my mind. Awesome. (I say that word too much).

That struck a question in my mind: how am I not fat? It's a reasonable question! If I never have to get up to get something, or just plain get up, how am I healthy? I can move myself around without actually- er- moving, by making inanimate objects, like my clothes, go wherever. Warning: clothes are not trains, they may tear under human weight when flying around.

All of those weird thoughts stayed in my head when I entered the cafeteria oh gosh, I thought, run! RUN AWAY!

It was my worst nightmare -even higher up on the fear-chart then the one about the bananas and apples- a bunch of heroes all in the same place, staring at me. Maybe it was because I was standing at the entrance like an idiot, maybe it was 'cos I had just thrown out my banana, or maybe it was because my tray was hovering beside me. Hey, I didn't know you couldn't use your powers out of class, so it wasn't my fault!

I, frowning, made my way over to the table Sissy and Acid-Spit guy were sitting at.

"Hey Sissy," I said. "Acid-Spit guy."

"Sid." He corrected. (Sissy and Sid both start with 'S', was the first thing I noticed) "I'm Cecilia's cousin. And you are..."

"Vale."

"Val-lay? I thought it was Kaylee."

"It was. But I prefer Vale." I said.

"Depressing," he said. "It's like calling yourself 'Goodbye'."

"It _is_ calling yourself 'Goodbye'." Chastised Sissy smartly. "Latin, right?"

"Yeah." I replied. "You guys have nicknames?"

"Well, you just gave me 'Acid-Spit guy', so I guess I'm covered." I laughed.

"And you gave me Sissy, so I'm grand too."

"Acid-Spit guy, Sissy and Vale shall rule the world." I said, grinning theatrically.

"They will shudder at our cool nicknames," said Sid sarcastically, but he was grinning too.

"Congrats at getting Hero," I said, but without enthusiasm.

"Ah well, 'Sissy' will beat my socks off." Sid said.

"Really?" I asked, interested. I looked over to Sissy, who was blushing a bit.

"I control snow and stuff, but not like those sculpturers outside. I just go 'poof', and everyone gets hit by white fluffy stuff. It's not even real snow, it tastes like strawberries."

"Cool! Aim at me, OK?" I made her promise.

"Fine!" She giggled.

When we all lined up to get back to the gym, all those happy thoughts disintegrated.

"I don't wanna be a hero," I groaned, whacking my head against the door. I felt someone's stare on me, I looked behind and caught Gwen's eye. She smirked like a mad person, and I shuddered. I think she heard me.

"Don't worry," said Sissy and Sid at the same time.

"I'm not. It's more like get-me-out-of-here syndromn." I complained.

We all huddled up and watched Stronghold nearly get squashed by a falling car, and catapulted into the wall.

"SIDEKICK!" Roared the coach.

Next was some guy called Dora (I thought that was a girl name?) who could eat metal. (There goes one of coach's cars). Then up went Sissy.

"What's your gift?" Ordered the coach.

"Snow." Said Sissy, shrinking into the quiet girl I met on the bus.

The coach must've misheard her, and called: _"Car!_".

Sissy squeaked and formed a large, shimmering white arc of snow above her head. The snow, somehow, deflected the car and Sissy wasn't hit.

The coach looked stuck. "Any other powers?"

"I can manipulate water?" She said weakly.

Sid looked suprised. Obviously she hadn't told him _that_.

The arc of snow melted and swirled around in a globe of H20.

"Hero," decided Coach Boomer.

"You," he said. I didn't bother looking behind me, it was obviously my go.

I slowly climbed onto the pedestal.

"Power?" He questioned.

"I'm telekinetic, I can control people's breathing and what they see." I probably should be happy I have so many abilities, but I hate attention, so I usually don't blather on about them.

The coach looked impressed. "CAR!"

My powers aren't fully grown yet, so the car shook violently for the first minute, but it stayed in the air.

"Prove the other two." He said.

I imagined apples in wedding dresses and bananas in tuxes, and stopped the air around the coach for half a minute.

"Good." He said. I prayed for the unlikely. _Sidekick, sidekick, sidekick._ "Hero!"

Oh, dang it.


End file.
